Chris Ryall and Sam Kieth Visit The Hollows in December

IDW announced THE HOLLOWS, a new, creator-owned miniseries from Chris Ryall (Zombies vs. Robots, KISS) and Sam Kieth (The MAXX, Arkham Asylum: Madness)! This sounds like it may be right up my alley!

To combat the catastrophic death of a decaying Japan, survivors create genetically engineered supertrees-wooden leviathans capable of supporting entire cities suspended above the radioactive wastes below. Traveling via jetpacks to stay above the toxic air below, the survivors must also band together against the Hollows, irradiated husks whose humanity has been supplanted by an unquenchable desire to consume human energy!

“The Hollows began as a more straightforward tale,” said Chris Ryall, also IDW’s Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief, “until Sam and I remembered that neither of us really tell straightforward tales. So the desolate setting for the story is really just the backdrop for a more personal tale of love, loss, redemption, faith, flight, and past versus future, all wrapped up and bound to the archaic flying suit of our protagonist, a beleaguered scientist/explorer named Kobayashi who ventures down from his city-state and finds something entirely unexpected. Along with a little scene- and heart-stealing creature called Urp, too.”

THE HOLLOWS is the premiere of a wildly original new world realized in the vivid, expressive tones that can only emanate from Sam Kieth’s hands. Planned for four issues, THE HOLLOWS has been in the works between Ryall and Kieth for some time now.

“Well for me it was started visually… it stops short of having the heart of a true fantasy story, stops just shy of steampunk. It’s soft sci-fi at best, and the ghostly hollows provide a bit of horror too,” said Kieth. “Reading over Chris’s wonderful script, The Hollows seems to floats effortlessly through all of these genres. Maybe a cross between City of Lost Children and Brazil; hard to pigeonhole.”

THE HOLLOWS #1 (of 4) is 32 pages, full color, and will be in stores 12/19/12.